Broadband alarm

LABOUR list MSP Rhoda Grant has voiced alarm after a second bidder withdrew their tender from the government’s superfast broadband pilot scheme in the highlands and islands.

Cable & Wireless have followed Fujitsu by pulling out of the tendering process due to the lack of public money being invested in the project.

Mrs Grant said that so far only 10 per cent of the estimated costs have been secured and called on the governments in Holyrood and Westminster to invest.

“Westminster is presently investing more in broadband in Scotland than our own Scottish government is and this needs to change,” she said.

“That said, I am appealing again to Westminster to release the remaining money it has set aside for rural broadband (£167m), but I am also calling on our government at Holyrood not only to introduce its broadband action plan with immediate effect but also to urgently increase the amount it is investing in Scotland’s digital future.”